Reality TV and Shame Ownership: How a Latina Became an African-American Stereotype
For many people, reality shows Basketball Wives, Miami and Real Housewives of Atlanta have metastasized in America’s psyche as a poisonous stereotype of African-American women.
Cloaked as entertainment, our marginalization as angry Sapphires and promiscuous Jezebels is encapsulated in each and every episode. At times, both juvenile and superficial — with a painfully obvious need for fame and external validity — these women have yet to realize that every cat-fight and backstabbing antic solidifies their pioneering role in a new Blackface era, where strong, successful women are reduced to mere caricatures of themselves.
Which is why it is so intriguing that the shiniest star in the BBW orbit is Evelyn Lozada.
You wouldn’t guess it by the petition spreading like wild-fire across the black wide web, but Lozada, a proud Puerto-Rican from the Bronx, is not African-American. Whether she considers herself to be black or not is a topic tackling race vs. ethnicity that is tangential to this article. Still, without fanfare or warning, she has become a symbol of many of the stereotypical depictions that have plagued African-American women since the dawn of time and all she needed to do was act like a damn fool.
How exactly did this happen? How was our distorted media image transferred so seamlessly to Lozada?
Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, host of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry and author of the book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, said in a discussion at the University of California, Santa Barbara, that many black women feel shamed by stereotypical images – many which have come to life in the contemporary narratives of Basketball Wives and RHOA – because we are still grappling with our identity in this country and asserting our right to shed the stigma of being black in America. With powerful honesty, she told the audience that seeing ourselves portrayed in a positive light instinctively “means something to us.” With this in mind, it would make sense that when we see these historical stereotypes weekly in high definition, the “color” of the person embodying them ceases to be important.
Not surprisingly, the topic of “race” is approached with extreme caution and vagueness on both shows. Leading many viewers, perhaps subconsciously, into believing that both Evelyn and Kim Zolciak of RHOA — the token white woman who tries so painfully hard be a stereotypical “sista” — are anomalies in a world where they are not representatives of their respective cultures. Rather, they are viewed as “honorary members” of our own – at least the mischaracterization of it that is spoon-fed to the world. Unlike the inescapable “otherness” of black skin in this country, their racial identity is safely tucked between the folds of what is stereotypically considered an African-American woman’s existence. Simultaneously, a fun-house mirror reflection of Black culture is being broadcast all over the world, then boomeranging back to polarize our communities.
In a previous Clutch article, I hypothesized that to feel disrespect, one must feel that a characterization is abusive, and to experience that abuse on a visceral level, one must feel that even if it’s not true of them as individuals, it is often true of their kindred in the collective. This is amplified on BBW and RHOA, where critics continue to cast judgment on what blurs into an all-Black cast and many of us will continue to shoulder the “shame” of two small groups of women because how we are represented “means something to us.”
While this concern is admirable, and at times necessary, the idea that black women must always be perfectly well-behaved — or risk shaming the community-at-large – is both unrealistic and unfair. We are fighting a battle that is unique to women of color in this country, and that is the duality of asserting our individual identities separate from stereotypical imagery, while fighting for the elevation of our communities as a whole. This places us in the precarious position of not being able to ignore the pervasive effects of reality television, while still recognizing that every, single one of these women has the right to present themselves to the world as they choose – whether anyone agrees or not.
At some point, the debate must be expanded to encompass not only how our narrow representations in media are affecting our communities, but to also address the more nuanced ground of individual identity – something to which black women seem not to be entitled.
Dialogue is essential.
And a good place to begin would be to examine why black women have been elected as torch-bearers for the entire African-American community at-large – trapped in a cycle of stereotypes that refuse to disappear.
Evelyn is afro latino from the bronx. She is no different from black women, therefore she is subject to the same stereotypes as black women. Duh… blog postings like this are what seperates people of african decent. This post is devisive and insulting.
Evelyn is not a black woman. Do not push this woman upon my group. If you feel that this post creates a division between different black ethnicities than your have a warped definition of what it is to be black. If you referred to Evelyn as black you would be called everything BUT a child of God. Stop claiming people who want nothing to do with you.
I was all prepared to give a diasporic high five to you squeen when I read the unfortunate reply to your post. As a Black woman born in the US, with a lineage of slavery in my history, who does not often identify as African American because I am family with all people of African descent around the world, it saddens me that many Black folks in this country think that we have the monopoly on “being Black” or that Black folk from other parts of the world do not suffer under similiar stuggles, stereotypes or racial aggression. TOTALLY UNTRUE!
@Alexendria
You overestimate the unison people have because they are the same race. Culture trumps race.
And also understand that race is a social construct which veries from country to country. In America Evelyn is not black. I do not impose my view of race on others when I am outside of the states, and neither should you or squeen.
Please don’t hesitate to give squeen that Disporiac high five that misguidingly believes that race unites a group of people.
The reason I see why the Evelyn’s and Kim’s are associated with black people, and particularly black women is because racists need to associate anything negative with blackness and being black. I can’t even begin to count the number of times a white person has been assumed to be black or that they must associate with black people because of something negative they done. Anytime a crime news report does not describe race or show a picture, it is guaranteed the criminal is assumed to be black.
Even when we do something positive the achievement is distanced from us. I heard racists fools attempt to say the FLOTUS is not black, that she has Eurocentric features. WTF
It’s like people want to believe the worst in us and will twist reality to suit their beliefs. As if every non black person (namely white) is without flaw and incorruptible. Kim is a WHITE woman. Evelyn is a MESTIZO latina women with faint black blood. Not caricatures of a black women.
This is correct, I see it all the time; in subliminal hints of course. All that is negative is always disproportionately associated with Black people. But when the categorization boxes can’t close, excuses are made.
Stereotypically, a Black person that is trash is typical (what they call TNB) or a representative of all Blacks. A Black person that isn’t, is an exception or a rarity. It’s a bit pathetic some people have to dig into themselves or hesitate to say something positive about a Black person. I used to watch the Bad Girls Club & despite the show casting most White or non-Black girls, viewers always attributed the Black girls to all the trash behavior, even though all the girls are trash. Obviously, a difference is made when Whites and Blacks act reckless. There is no room for individuality and Black women are definitely trapped in these boxes. I also believe Black women have just as much power to change it.
I agree with your last comment as well; just wait till the ‘one-drop rule enforcers’ come after you.
Great article/topic Kirsten!
@alexandra YES!!!!
go to the bad girls clubs’ youtube videos and you’ll see that when it’s white girls fighting and being immature then all you see is “well she shouldn’t have been talking shit!” or ” damn i love a tough sexy fiesty chick!” and ” shes a true bad bish. i love her ‘dont fuck with me attitude!’” but when you see a video with any of the black girls from the show everybody in the comment section is saying “why are people surprised? this is how black women always act” and ” look at the black chick being a bully” ” black people are always causing fights”
the same damn youtube channel!! LOL
@yb
too true
DAMN DAMN DAMN THIS IS SOO TRUE!